Transcript

Murders Defined | 48 Hours Full Episodes

From 48 Hours · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 2 h 5 min · 16,978 words · 465 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Murders Defined | 48 Hours Full Episodes", an episode of 48 Hours published February 7, 2026 (2 h 5 min, about 16,978 words). It mentions 16 people, works and ideas, including Sarah Harris, Dr. Anthony Garcia, Kraton Medical Center, Dundee, Dr. Roger Brumach.

What this episode is about

In a shocking and brutal series of murders in the quiet neighborhood of Dundee, Omaha, both an 11-year-old boy and an elderly housekeeper were killed, leaving the community reeling and detectives puzzled by the lack of motive or robbery. As investigators uncover further violence with the murders of a respected doctor and his wife, the case highlights the disturbing reality of violent crime in seemingly safe areas.

Key takeaways

  • In quiet Dundee, the unthinkable unfolds—violence bursts through a community's serene facade, leaving lasting scars.
  • Tommy Hunter, an 11-year-old science whiz, brightens the lives of many; his loss shatters the neighborhood's innocence.
  • Murder in suburbia isn't just shocking; it reveals vulnerabilities even in the American heartland's most beloved neighborhoods.
  • Doctor's love for Alzheimer's research juxtaposed with brutal violence—who could envision such darkness in a caregiving oasis?
  • Inexplicable crimes challenge our assumptions; when nothing's stolen, the horror lies deeper than mere motive—it's pure malice.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 15:00: Dundee, Tommy Hunter, Dr. Roger Brumach, Shirley Sherman
  2. – 30:00: Dr. Anthony Garcia, Dr. Roger Brumach, Shirley Sherman, Kraton Medical Center
  3. – 45:00: Dr. Anthony Garcia, Shirley Sherman, Nebraska, Kraton Medical Center
  4. – 1:00:00: McKenzie Cowell
  5. – 1:15:00: McKenzie Cowell
  6. – 1:30:00: Sarah Harris
  7. – 1:45:00: Sarah Harris
  8. – 2:00:00: Sarah Harris

Notable quotes from "Murders Defined | 48 Hours Full Episodes"

  • Dr. Roger Brumach and his wife Mary.
    about Mary Brumach · at
  • According to Todd Cooper, court reporter for the Omaha World Herald, the secret heartbeat of this town is Kraton Medical Center.
    about Kraton Medical Center · at
  • The Hunters and their four children lived here, a handsome home in that upscale, close-knit neighborhood known as Dundee.
    about Dundee · at
  • Tom Hunter and Shirley Sherman had been stabbed to death. And as if sending some dark, raging homicidal message, knives had been left in the victims and around the house.
    about Tommy Hunter · at
  • Kraton, but he worked out of the same office as Tom Hunter's father, Bill, the pathology department. Roger Brumach was chairman, and Bill Hunter was in charge of the residence.
    about Dr. Roger Brumach · at
  • Anthony Garcia guilty of murder in the deaths of Thomas Hunter, Shirley Sherman, and Roger and Mary Brumach.
    about Dr. Anthony Garcia · at
  • McKenzie went missing shortly after 3:00 p.m. on February 9th.
    about McKenzie Cowell · at
  • She then became an employee and then his girlfriend and his living girlfriend.
    about Sarah Harris · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Sarah Harris — Person · Victim / central figure in Sarah Harris case segment · 12 mentions · first at
    Young woman whose death (drug cocktail including ketamine/propofol/diazepam per transcript) becomes the focus of an investigation and trial against Dr. James Ryan.
  • Dr. Anthony Garcia — Person · Primary suspect/defendant in Omaha quadruple-murder segment · 27 mentions · first at
    Former pathology resident allegedly motivated by revenge after termination; convicted for murders of Tom Hunter, Shirley Sherman, Roger Brumach, and Mary Brumach.
  • Dr. Roger Brumach — Person · Victim in 2013 Omaha murders; key linkage to pathology program · 6 mentions · first at
    Pathology department leader whose murder mirrors the 2008 crime scene; his termination-letter signature is presented as motive evidence against Anthony Garcia.
  • Tommy Hunter — Person · Victim in 2008 Dundee (Omaha) murders · 5 mentions · first at
    11-year-old victim whose murder becomes the initial cold case later linked to the Brumach murders and to Anthony Garcia.
  • McKenzie Cowell — Person · Victim / central figure in McKenzie Cowell case segment · 15 mentions · first at
    Teen whose disappearance and murder in Washington state drives a long investigation and controversial prosecution/plea involving Chris Wilson (not in entity list).
  • Shirley Sherman — Person · Victim in 2008 Dundee (Omaha) murders · 8 mentions · first at
    Housekeeper killed alongside Tommy Hunter; her death is part of the pattern later linked to the 2013 Brumach murders.
    Tom Hunter and Shirley Sherman had been stabbed to death. And as if sending some dark, raging homicidal message, knives had been left in the victims and around the house.
  • Mary Brumach — Person · Victim in 2013 Omaha murders · 3 mentions · first at
    Killed alongside Dr. Roger Brumach; her defensive wounds and the knife evidence are cited as part of the mirrored crime-scene pattern.
  • Jane Buffett — Person · Referenced notable resident of Omaha (scene-setting) · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned to characterize Omaha as prominent and prosperous; not directly tied to the crimes discussed.
    My take on OMA overall is it's a terrific place to live.

Companies & orgs

  • Kraton Medical Center — Company · Business focus · 4 mentions · first at
    Central to the episode's narrative, as it's the workplace of several key figures involved in the murders.
  • Omaha World Herald — Company · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at
    The newspaper where Todd Cooper works, providing media context to the story.
    According to Todd Cooper, court reporter for the Omaha World Herald, the secret heartbeat of this town is Kraton Medical Center.

Places & events

  • Dundee — Place · Setting · 6 mentions · first at
    The neighborhood where the initial murders took place, setting the stage for the episode's events.
  • Nebraska — Place · Setting · 4 mentions · first at
    The state where the events of the episode unfold, providing geographical context.
    Omaha, Nebraska, a proud beacon of America's Midwest. Spreading out from the majestic banks of the Missouri River, home of the College World Series, GO TO HOMER and Warren Buffett, rich enough to live.
  • Terre Haute, Indiana — Place · Setting · 4 mentions
    The location where Anthony Garcia was living at the time of his arrest, adding to the geographical scope of the episode.
    And by 2013, Garcia was long gone from Omaha.
  • Walnut, California — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at
    Anthony Garcia's hometown, providing background on his upbringing.
    Walnut, California is a place where dreams really do come true. A pristine suburb in a golden valley about an hour east of Los Angeles.
  • College World Series — Event · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as part of Omaha's cultural identity, adding local color to the narrative.
    Omaha, Nebraska, a proud beacon of America's Midwest. Spreading out from the majestic banks of the Missouri River, home of the College World Series, GO TO HOMER and Warren Buffett, rich enough to live.
  • Hawaii — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as the location where Dr. Claire Hunter was attending a conference when the murders occurred.
    March 13th, 2008, Dr. Claire Hunter was attending a conference in Hawaii and Bill was busy at the pathology lab.

Full transcript with timestamps

From the beginning, this was strange. It happened in Dundee. It's a classic neighborhood, the heart of Omaha. Violent crime does not happen in Dundee. the mundane world of after school and then it's just shattered by a monster. I remember walking in their front door into this very nice home. There's a little boy lying face down in a very large pool of blood. You know, you think of Tommy Hunter and you can't imagine what the last few seconds of his life were like.

Smart kid, loves science, math, every parent's son. And then as you walk through the house and you get to the back door, you see this large pool of blood. This lady who had very evidently been pushed down to the ground and attacked. Shirley Sherman. grandma. Gentle soul, hardworking.

To have anybody murdered is a shock to the community, but to have an 11-year-old boy and a housekeeper killed in a manner they were, I think, is a whole another level.

There didn't appear to be anything missing in the house. No robbery. No, there was no readily explainable reason behind what you see. On that day, one of the neighbors happened to notice a car that she wasn't familiar with. It

was a fleeting glance at him and his vehicle. Silver Honda CRV. Things went cold after the first couple months.

How frustrated were you getting? Incredibly. I don't even know if I can put it into words. Beautiful Mother's Day. Tragedy strikes again.

Dr. Roger Brumach and his wife Mary. Yeah. Murdered. Detective, do you remember the first time you walked into this house?

I do. What it look like? The aftermath of an incredibly brutal murder. Roger Brunck devoted portions of his medical career to childhood disease and then to Alzheimer's. Mary Brunck could not have had an enemy in the world. You walk through that first door. Scott and I had a real definitive moment after we walked through that house where we're like, you know, I've seen these things before, specifically with the wounds to the right side of the neck. You don't see a lot of knifings that are or stabbings that are that are like that.

When had the last time been that you had seen stabbings like that was 2008 with Thomas and Shirley.

The mindset at that point was there's a connection here. Light bulb must have gone off very brightly.

It's incredible on so many levels. You can't help but be touched by the innocence of all of these victims. And then it's in peaceful neighborhoods on beautiful days. This is a once in a-lifetime type story.

Omaha, Nebraska, a proud beacon of America's Midwest. Spreading out from the majestic banks of the Missouri River, home of the College World Series,

GO TO HOMER and Warren Buffett, rich enough to live anywhere he chooses. My take on OMA overall is it's a terrific place to live.

According to Todd Cooper, court reporter for the Omaha World Herald, the secret heartbeat of this town is Kraton Medical Center.

It resonates throughout the community. You can't go anywhere without running into someone who is Kraton born and bred.

How long was your career atraton? 40 years. Doctors Shondaanda and Aange Butra loved and respected their Kraton colleagues.

You both knew Dr. Hunter. Yes. His office is right next to my office. The Butras were close friends with doctors Bill and Claire Hunter, the parents of 11-year-old Thomas. What were they like?

Nice people. Dedicated to their hospital. He was very well loved by residents and students.

The Hunters and their four children lived here, a handsome home in that upscale, close-knit neighborhood known as Dundee.

It's a classic neighborhood. Neighbors in each other's business, common areas where kids play. March 13th, 2008, Dr. Claire Hunter was attending a conference in Hawaii and Bill was busy at the pathology lab. The school bus camera captures Tom arriving home.

Smart kid, loved to play Xbox, drink pepper, eat potato chips. Tom Hunter, a very bright, very normal sixth grader. His three older brothers already out of the house waiting for Tom, the hunter's part-time housekeeper, Shirley Sherman.

When you think of your mom, what are some of the words that come into mind? Mother, caregiver, grandmother, nurturer.

For her son Jeff and her younger brother Brad, Shirley was the rockolid, hardworking centerpiece of their extended family. Anytime you'd go over there, first thing she'd always want to do is make sure she had coffee. And you want something to eat, I'll fix you something. Tom grabbed a snack and settled into this basement playroom with his chips, soda, and his Xbox. 5:00, Dr. Hunter left his pathology lab at Kraton and began the 10-minute ride home.

He came home from work immediately walking in the back door and he encountered Shirley.

And just a few feet away lay his son Tom. The doctor knew immediately it was too late for an ambulance.

He called 911. They told him to get out of the house and wait for first responders to come. Detective Derek Moyes, 19 years with the Omaha PD, and his partner, Sergeant Scott Warner, describe a crime scene that would consume and haunt them.

Incredibly sad scenario. Just the manner and the brutality of it. And in the basement, cops found that still life of Tom's world interrupted by madness. His Xbox was online and you could see his bag of chips and his Dr. Pepper.

Not surprisingly, it was evident Shirley had been hard at work. You see her bucket of cleaning supplies just kind of dropped halfhazardly right where Thomas was.

Tom Hunter and Shirley Sherman had been stabbed to death. And as if sending some dark, raging homicidal message, knives had been left in the victims and around the house. But what was the motive for murder?

Something's just not adding up here. My mom had uh $833 in cash in her purse. It wasn't even touched.

The hunters have a lot of valuables there. None of that appeared to have been touched. I imagine the community must have been unglued.

I think a city as a whole, an 11-year-old boy doesn't get killed in his home. It just doesn't happen. For detectives Moyes, Warner, and the other investigators, the horror of these gut-wrenching murders would soon be paired with a deep frustration. The crime scene left them little to go on. No DNA, no motive, no apparent suspects. One of the neighbors happened to notice a car that she wasn't familiar with.

That was the first clue, and it would one day prove critical, the neighbors sighting of a silver Honda SUV with out of state plates prowling the streets of Dundee. It caught her attention not only because of the car, but watching an individual that had exited the car take a satchel and then walk northbound on this street. Moyes Warner played out one scenario after the next

and it occupied our lives every day. And when I say every day, I mean all day. Was surely the target? Might Tom have attracted an online predator to his basement playroom.

Was there something that had occurred online over his gaming over a computer? And there was Kraton itself. Were the murders a gruesome act of vengeance by a disgruntled former employee targeting Tom's parents, the Hunters? Detectives briefly considered this man, Dr. Anthony Garcia, a former resident in the pathology program. Bill Hunter had fired Garcia back in 2001, but

Bill Hunter dismissed Anthony Garcia when they brought up his name um in an interview. Now, yeah, he got fired, but he left quietly.

Every lead seemed like a dead end, leaving nothing but shattered families. You just can't put it out of your mind. We did not want it to just go away, disappear. They want answers and the only people they can really turn to is us.

Was there ever a point for either of you where you thought, "We're just never going to find out who did this?"

Sure. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah, there was. It was clear to us that Thomas had been attacked first. The horrific crime scene in the Hunter House in Dundee gave investigators plenty to puzzle over and think through.

We just didn't see anything that would have precipitated the murders. Even after a couple of weeks into the investigation, we didn't know if Thomas was the intended victim, if it was Shirley, if it was the hunter house, the hunters themselves, or if it was a completely random act.

Moyes and Warner kept grinding and getting nowhere. It was a mystery for years.

Let's talk about Mother's Day 2013. We took a couple and we took them out for Mother's Day brunch and they're older people and he was with a walker that Mother's Day fate brushed the butras and it all started after that brunch with their slowmoving elderly guest.

He took forever to get to his car and Dr. Butra's husband ribbed him at the time and said, "You are killing us here." like you are taking forever.

The irony being he actually may have been saving their lives. Yeah. The Butras, both doctors atraton, finally began their short drive home when they got a call. Their burglar alarm was going off.

So I went to the basement. This door was open about an inch. Pushed it back in.

The door was a jar, but nothing was out of place. They had no idea how lucky they were. Cops say the intruder moved on just a few miles down the road to the home of Dr. Roger Brumach and his wife Mary.

Roger Brumach was in his old clothes painting the entryway of his house, getting it ready to to sell.

They were moving away. They were going to retire. They were on the cusp of what we all work for. And they had talked to their daughter via FaceTime. His daughter cracked a joke. She screenshot it.

It was shortly after that FaceTime chat that Kraton Dr. Roger Brumach answered a knock at the door

and boom, just immediately shot. It would be 2 days before anyone knew the extent and the nature of the carnage inside the Brumach's home.

We showed up to move a piano here and nobody answered the door. Jason Peterson, a piano mover, showed up as scheduled.

And I opened up the front glass door to yell inside, "Hello." And that's when I seen a gun clip on the floor.

Like a magazine. A magazine on the floor. The piano mover, called the cops. There's a gun clip and some bullets on the floor. I just think there's something going on in this house.

That day, detectives Derek Moyes and Scott Warner just happened to be on call. You walk through that front door, there was the loaded magazine that the movers had spotted. You also found a a spent shell casing stuck between the double doors. And just beyond that in the entryway was Roger Brumback where you could see he had gunshot wounds. We would also see very evident stab marks on the right side of his neck just below his right ear. in inside the main living room area of that main floor and that's where we would find Mary Brumach. She had very clear defensive wounds on her hands which were indicative of her trying to put up a defense and we had knives that were left in that crime scene.

The carnage just inside the front door of the Brumach's house was shocking even for longtime homicide detectives. But there was something else about the crime scene that hit them almost instantly. a sickening familiarity

specifically with the wounds to the right side of the neck. And when I saw those both on the male victim and on the female victim, you don't see a lot of knifings that are or stabbings that are that are like that.

The wounds were a mirror image to those suffered by Tom Hunter and Shirley Sherman in 2008.

And then you find out the victim worked as a doctor at Kraton's medical school.

Mhm. Yep. Then you two must look at each other and say, "We we can't ignore this. We got something here."

Oh, no. Roger Brumach was not only a doctor at Kraton, but he worked out of the same office as Tom Hunter's father, Bill, the pathology department. Roger Brumach was chairman, and Bill Hunter was in charge of the residence.

We knew we had these similarities in the crime scenes and the weapons that were used in and this connection to the pathology department. The cold case that had mystified Omaha for five frustrating years was heating up.

Your mind's going a million miles an hour. You consciously have to make yourself slow down.

The next day, cops got a call from the Butras telling detectives about that alarm that went off at their home on Mother's Day, the same day the Brumachs were believed to have been murdered.

We have Dr. Hunter, whose son Tom had been murdered in 2008. We have Dr. Brumach,

who had just been gunned down in his doorway. And now Dr. Betra, a colleague of Drs. Hunter and Brumach in Kraton's pathology department.

Who are they in a position to of affect the most? And the obvious answer was of course the the residents at that pathology training program.

And from that point on, that's what we looked at. We went to Kraton University and we pulled the files from every resident within that program starting I think in 2000.

And one of the files you got belonged to Anthony Garcia. Mhm. Anthony Garcia. Omaha police had heard his name before. That Kraton pathology resident the cops had barely considered back in 2008. He had been fired. And Garcia's professor in the pathology department, Dr. Shanda Butra,

what kind of student was he? Bad guy and a bad student. And Dr. Butra didn't hold back on her feelings. In several performance reviews, she prepared for Bill Hunter.

I was trying very hard to convince Bill to get rid of him. Yes. And that's exactly what happened. Hunter and Brumach fired Garcia. His letter of termination began to look like a smoking gun. And the signatures are Dr. William Hunter and Dr. Roger Brumach.

Mhm. Correct. So in his mind, if he's trying to figure out who's responsible for his termination,

he's thinking of three people. Brumach, Hunter, and Butra. Yes. Every time Anthony Garcia is looking for a job, this letter signed by Brumach and Hunter kind of seemingly was coming back to haunt him.

Where does this case where is it in terms of your your frontal lobe? It's everpresent. It's at the forefront for sure.

It's been a constant since 2008. Two sets of murders 5 years apart with a common thread. Kraton University.

I always felt there something to do with Kraton. Meanwhile, Detective Derek Moyes was learning as much as he could about former Kraton resident Anthony Garcia. And after I got the Garcia book, every time I I I turned a page, I was learning something new that I felt was relevant, that I felt was going to carry me on to the next step.

For Moyes, Garcia was looking more and more like his number one suspect, but an unlikely one,

Anthony Garcia. Who is he? You know, a decidedly middle class kid. Uh, played football, grew up in Walnut, California.

Walnut, California is a place where dreams really do come true. A pristine suburb in a golden valley about an hour east of Los Angeles.

It was a loving home. We're encouraged to, you know, do the right thing. Fernando Garcia is Anony's younger brother, keenly aware of what his family has accomplished. My mom was born in Mexico and came here and you know my dad was born here. You know, my dad fought in Vietnam. They didn't have a lot. They were able to achieve, you know, the American dream.

For Fred, who worked for the post office and Estella, a registered nurse, a cornerstone of their dream, was their firstborn child, Anthony.

He was healthy, playful. He played uh football. What kind of student was Anthony?

He was good. He was a good student. He was an alter boy who wanted to get along with people. Not confrontational.

There was college in California and then med school in Utah. He wanted to be a brain surgeon.

You must have been enormously proud. Of course. Oh yes. Yes. Then in 1999 came a journey most parents only dream of. His dad described packing all of Anony's belongings into a van and driving cross country. Father and son. Dad couldn't have been prouder.

Father and son were headed here, Basset St. Elizabeth's in Udica, New York. It would be Anthony Garcia's first residency, and it didn't go well.

I did not know he was having trouble. Garcia's professors accused him of behaving unprofessionally, including yelling at a radiology technician. Under pressure, Garcia resigned and the firstborn son headed back home.

When he came back, he was not the same. He looked very tired, almost exhausted.

But he wasn't giving up. And in July of 2000, Anthony Garcia got what few residents ever do, a second chance.

I was happy he was getting a job. That's when Garcia began his residency in the pathology department at Kraton.

Academically, he was very poor. But there was much more than poor academics. Pranking a chief resident, rolling a body onto its face so it becomes disfigured. He would write emails to Dr. Hunter complaining about Dr. Butra. I mean, this guy was a child uh cloaked cloaked with a medical degree. Then in 2001, after multiple incidents and those bad performance reviews by Dr. Butra, Kraton had its fill of Anthony Garcia. What does it mean for a resident to be terminated?

Pretty serious. It pretty much ends your medical career. Anthony Garcia headed home once again.

He said it didn't work out. Did he complain about the people? He did not complain about the people. He never complained about anybody. Those who knew and still love him believe Anony's struggled with depression and migraine headaches and was overwhelmed by the rigorous work required to fulfill his American dream of becoming a doctor.

I can see that taking a toll on somebody uh psychologically, emotionally and did you get the sense at all that Anthony felt he had failed?

Not at all. I think he was adamant about continuing with that career. And miraculously in 2003, Anthony Garcia got a third chance working as a resident at the University of Illinois Hospital. He somehow managed to get a medical license to practice in the state of Illinois.

But for the state of Illinois, this guy does not have a medical license anywhere. For the next few years, Anthony Garcia bounced around the country working where he could, clinics, even a prison hospital. With every new state he moved to, Garcia had to apply for a medical license there. And those who had the authority to grant that license would learn of his dismissal from Kraton. And each time he would pay a price for his past. to get lure in another state. They would be sending Kraton University very specific requests about doc or Anthony Garcia's time at Kraton University. And those responses were not positive. They were not positive. It doesn't take a detective or even a physician to read those as a lay person and say that's not going to help him get get lure or a job.

Investigators discovered that in February 2008, Garcia was living in Louisiana. The state denied his application for a medical license due in part to his termination from Kraton. Less than 3 weeks later, Tom Hunter and Shirley Sherman were brutally murdered. The pieces of Anthony Garcia's past were coming together in front of Moyes and Warner. But could they place him in Dundee in 2008 on the day of Tom and Shirley's murder? Moyes wondered what kind of car Garcia was driving back then. So, he checked his reports. And I remember it was on page 11 of that report that between July of 2007 and July of 2009, Anthony Garcia had a Honda CRV registered to him at a Shereport, Louisiana address.

After discovering the make and model, Moyes ran the VIN number to get the color

and it came back as a silver Honda CRV. It was 2013. The slaughter of four innocent people over the course of 5 years had left Omaha staggered and searching for answers.

This is something that really had upset the community, the city, the the region. It evolved into something so much bigger than any of us were were used to.

But its origin was right here. The pathology department at Kraton University Medical Center where Dr. Brumach was the head of the department and Dr. Hunter was in charge of the residence. It was also here investigators allege that Anthony Garcia developed his twisted motive for murder.

It's unfathomable. A grudge that fers for seven years before the first killings and 12 years before the second set of killings. That's unheard of.

A grudge that wouldn't quit. Revenge for being fired was the motive. The theory of the case Moyes and Warner began to build. But Fernando Garcia, Anony's younger brother, wasn't buying it.

There's been millions of people fired who don't come back and kill somebody. And by 2013, Garcia was long gone from Omaha. Living 500 miles away in Terode, Indiana, he had been fired again, this time from that job as a medical worker in a prison. Still, he had a Ferrari in his driveway and appeared to be living the high life. But that wasn't the information cops craved.

I needed to find out where he was on May 12th, 2013. The day Roger and Mary Brumach were murdered, Garcia's electronic records lit up the trail.

We have this phone call accessing a cell tower in Atlantic, Iowa, which is only an hour away from Omaha. He had made a purchase at a Wingstop restaurant in Omaha.

And Anthony Garcia was caught on camera just outside Omaha buying a case of Bud Light that very same day. At this point, do you have a suspect you want to arrest?

Yes. Detectives headed for Garcia's Terraote home, but when they got there, he was nowhere to be found.

Our concern was that he was leaving Teroot and he was headed south towards Louisiana

where there were other people that you felt he perceived had wronged him. Yes. Cops feared Garcia was out to kill again. Omaha detectives were now working with nearby law enforcement agencies and the FBI. And at 8:30 a.m., Illinois State Police spotted Garcia's car. He was pulled over drunk and on his knees in the middle of the road. Anthony Garcia was arrested. In his car, a crowbar, a sledgehammer, and a gun. We got a call that he was in custody.

And what did that sound like? Relief. Yeah. With Garcia under arrest, cops entered his house in Teroot.

It was barren. It didn't look like somebody planned on on really coming back. Omaha Detective Ryan Davis got the first look into a dark and conflicted world through Garcia's chilling words. We live. We die. We live. We die.

On top of the dining room table are all these documents. I would call them documents of success. A medical degree, a deed to his house, and then he's got this bag, this trash bag in his kitchen sink.

Inside the trash bag were more documents submerged in a liquid. It looked to detectives like someone was trying to destroy them.

These documents um really give you chills. He's talking about going to the store, buying broccoli, butter, shrimp.

Anthony Garcia's shopping list from the ordinary to the ominous. As you can see here, it says invade rich house, torture, murder. Over here, it says rich children, gun, invade, kill, knife, kidnap family, SUV, torture, kill.

And there was also something familiar soaking in the sink. Those negative performance reviews written by Dr. Shondaanda Butra and Garcia's termination letter signed by doctors Hunter and Brumach.

The motivation for these murders was all right there in that sink. That sink full of evidence wasn't all detectives found. Their investigation led them to a key witness at Garcia's favorite haunt, Club Coyote.

Who's Cecilia Hoffman? Um, at the time she was a stripper um at a strip club in Terode, Indiana. Mr. Garcia was a a regular customer.

A roadside strip joint, the one place Anthony Garcia's childhood dreams still had life.

When he came in the door, they would announce that uh Dr. Tony was in the house and he had all this money. And

Cecilia told Detective Davis that Garcia wanted more than just a dance. He wanted a girlfriend. That wasn't what she wanted.

So, she stated to us that she started to try to distance herself from him. Omaha cops recorded Cecilia's haunting story.

I'm putting out my little voice and saying, "Well, Dr. Tony, I only like bad boys. I'm a bad girl. You couldn't, you know, you couldn't handle a girl like me." And then that's when he told me. He told me I wasn't as good as he thought he was. He said, "I killed you before." He said, "I killed a young boy and an old woman."

Anthony Garcia confesses to the murders of Thomas Hunter and Shirley Sherman as a way to try to impress a stripper.

Right. The police fugitive unit would extradite Garcia back here to Omaha. And on July 23rd, 2013, right here at the Douglas County Courthouse, Dr. Anthony Garcia was formally charged with four counts of firstdegree murder. There wasn't anything in this case, I don't think, that was like our big piece of evidence. I think there were a lot of pieces. And when you put them together, that's what makes it overwhelming.

And it all points to Anthony Garcia. Lead prosecutor Don Klene and his deputy Brenda Beetle would lay out Nebraska's capital murder case against Anthony Garcia.

They're trying to put my client to death, and I was going to do whatever I had to do to get him a fair trial if if at all possible. and Bob Ma Jr., his father, and their legal associates with the Chicago based powerhouse defense team. Anthony Garcia's parents spent their entire life savings to hire.

Did your son kill Tommy Hunter, Shirley Sherman, Roger, and Mary Brumck? I don't know if if it did. It's a totally different person that they're talking about. Omaha. September 26th, 2016. 15 years after he was fired from Kraton, the quadruple murder trial of a very differentl looking Anthony Garcia finally began. Just the innocence in this. Every one of those people were just going about their days, their lives. And then Anthony Garcia comes knocking,

knocking with his grudge. Garcia's motive summed up by the prosecution in a single word, revenge.

He googled it. He searched for it. He searched for that term, including a quote in his phone. Shakespeare quote.

Merchant of Venice. If you harm us, shall I not revenge. Their theory is revenge. Revenge. If you take out that element, that leaves them with absolutely a giant gaping hole in their tapestry where the entire thing becomes unwoven.

No cameras were allowed in court. The Madas of Chicago went at the prosecution like heavyweights.

They brought a lot of fire. Revenge suggested the Madas was just a fancy theory. And in fact, the MAS produced this letter of recommendation for Anthony Garcia written by Dr. Hunter just a few days after Garcia was fired from Kraton.

We terminated him, but we don't want him to be jobless, destitute. We want him to rehabilitate and find some other job. And the MA's take on the star witness Cecilia Hoffman who Garcia had allegedly confessed to a strung out stripper at the time.

I think she's a liar. The time that she gives the interview, she's intoxicated. She's popping script pills every day. She has no credibility.

Well, I thought she was extremely credible and she had nothing to gain by coming forward. She was subjected to a very long and extensively vigorous cross-examination and she didn't waver and the jury saw that

and the jury saw this. The other piece of the gun was found off the highway on an exit ramp right by Terraout Indiana.

The gun cops believe Garcia used to kill Roger Brumach. That's an unbelievable coincidence. It's amazing.

The serial number matches the one on this gun box found in his Terraote apartment. But at the Butress home, on this door knob, there was DNA.

There was DNA evidence that pointed to Anthony Garcia. But the mods insisted cops could not place Garcia in Omaha for the first set of murders. And they argued this. Anthony Garcia was not the only disgruntled employee atraton. That buying chicken wings and beer on the day of the Brumach's murder didn't make their client a killer. And that he was simply looking for a job again in the Omaha area. If Nebraska puts Anthony Garcia to death, is an innocent man dying?

I believe so. I believe so. After more than 50 witnesses and 15 days of emotional testimony, the case went to the jury. It took just seven hours and then the jury spoke as one.

Anthony Garcia guilty of murder in the deaths of Thomas Hunter, Shirley Sherman, and Roger and Mary Brumach.

Anthony Garcia, who didn't testify, guilty on all counts. didn't have, you know, the the breath just kind of comes out of you and it brings a lot of emotions back because you think about

I can see about Thomas and and Shirley and Roger and Mary. For two cops, it was the answer to nearly a decade of relentless work.

You have been called the hero of this story. Not at all. You can't shake that off fast enough.

Oh, yeah. No, not at all. You're describing to me a tireless investigation by a lot of detectives in our department and other agencies.

But Omaha, that proud Midwestern city, wasn't buying Derek Moyes and Scott Warner's modest ways. And when they approached a room full of the victim's loved ones,

tell me what happened. You walked in. I don't even want to say it. Why not? I don't know.

I can see it in your face. This was the most emotional moment, wasn't it? One of them. Yes, for sure.

The victim's families stood and applauded. It's very gratifying. That's that's I think why we do what we do. And just finally after seven years, you can kind of let it go a little bit. Say, "Okay, these families have got their answer."

Three families shattered. Three plus one. They got the wrong person. I still don't believe it. Will you be at the sentencing?

Uh, yes. The firstborn son of hardworking people. He grew up in a healthy environment. What changed him? I don't know.

The boy who followed his dream now up for the death penalty. But I have to be there. I don't know if I ever see him again. I'm sorry.

Case. If there is room for irony in a murder story, it belongs to the Butras. Police believe that the Butras, not the Brumachs, would be dead if the Butrris had not been at that Mother's Day brunch with their slowmoving elderly friend.

If you had been home 20 minutes earlier, what would have happened? We would be both dead. We would be having this conversation.

It was either them or us. Outside Kraton Medical Center, where every single day countless doctors bind wounds, help and heal, there sits in the cool stillness a statue. It is Tom Hunter forever an 11-year-old child at play for eternity.

Right now we're in Pitcher Canyon. It's about 4 miles south of Wanachi. It's a place that there's really no reason to be this time of year and this time of night unless you live here. When we think of Pitcher Canyon, anybody who was here in 2010, they're always going to think of the Mackenzie Cow case.

McKenzie was a senior in high school. She was on the verge of being grown up. This wasn't your normal missing person's case. February 9th of 2010. And I last saw her as she packed up her bundles of books and left between 7:00 and 7:30 in the morning. Had made a quick little date. See you tonight for teriyak burgers. Okay, Dad. Love you. So, I was expecting her home. Called about 5:40. That's when the phone went straight to her voicemail. It wasn't It didn't even ring. Of course, you go through different waves of messages. One message will be, "Call me. I'm concerned." One message will be, "Now I'm getting irritated. You haven't called me back." And then the next message might be, "I'm sorry I was irritated. Call me when you can. Maybe something's wrong."

Something a little unusual happened here that night. A rancher came down uh found a red car here that didn't belong here and he called it in. The deputy came up here. He ran the license plate. They contacted the registered owner, Reed Cowl.

The phone rang and it was a deputy who was asking if I was missing my car. And I told him, "Yeah, I'm missing my car and the girl that drives it." I said, "Where's the car?" And he told me it was up Pitcher Canyon. So, I hopped in the car and headed straight that direction. Here we are driving. It's dark. It's cold. When I pulled around the corner, all I saw was the red car with flashing police lights. It was a pretty ominous thing to see.

Deputies checked the car and they found that Mackenzie's purse was inside. Well, that's really not right. McKenzie doesn't go anywhere without her purse. This is not good. Somebody's messed with her.

There was a lot of concern right away that something had happened to McKenzie. That was just a long, dark, evil, strange night.

McKenzie went missing shortly after 3:00 p.m. on February 9th. Her body was discovered around 1:00 February 13th on the banks of the Columbia River.

I mean, it just made me cold stone numb. It was just blank. The day that we found McKenzie and we saw how brutally she'd been murdered, we knew we were in for one tough investigation. The list went on and on.

Hold it right there. So many different suspects that we didn't know what to think. I'm Peter Vans. Tonight on 48 hours, Secrets of the River. With the miracle of another spring, the small town of Wan that Washington nest nestled in a landscape of endless apple orchards turns out to celebrate the annual Apple Blossom Parade. But in 2011, one graceful dancer is missing from the festivities. McKenzie Cowl.

She loved to dance, dance, dance anywhere we went. She danced grocery stores, gas stations, anywhere if a song came on, she would just break out in a boogie.

McKenzie's father, Reed Cowell, and his fiance, Sandy Francis, cheer on McKenzie's old high school dance team, the Appalletes.

And was she good at it? Oh, she loved it. She loved it. Beautiful. McKenzie, 17 years old, was 5'8, strong, and beautiful. A young woman with a future at the heart of a family unit that couldn't get enough of each other.

We used to call each other on our cell phones. That's how bad it was. Rooms were

upstairs to downstairs to argue over whose turn it was to make floats. Yeah. Just to make like Coke floats, root beer floats. Floats her root beer floats, orange floats.

The family is as authentic as the American West. Starting with Reed. He's at home among the soaring Cascade Mountains, rich blue skies, and of course, the orchards of apples.

And you felt safe having your family here. We did feel safe. And McKenzie, a senior in high school, was thriving.

She was working to achieve dreams that she created on her own. So, her day started at 6:15 in the morning. She had to be out of the door by 7:15. There was also her dance, modeling, and efforts to learn a trade. For that, she came here, the Academy of Hair Design, smack in the middle of downtown Wanache. What drew her to that, do you think?

I think her modeling and her love of clothes and, you know, the makeup and just pimping and being a girl.

Being a girl was something McKenzie loved. Her boyfriend Waqen Villisano was smitten.

Did you love her? Yeah, I loved her a lot. Did she love him? Absolutely. It was February 9th, 2010. Reed and McKenzie had planned a father-daughter dinner date at home. The orchards were barren and the cold Colombia rolled through town. beauty school got out at 5:00. So I called her about 5:40 to see how close she was and her cell phone went right to the voicemail, which was pretty weird.

2 hours later came that call from police and Reed's desperate ride into darkness and fear. The next morning, Detective John Cruz of the Wanachi Police Department joined the search for McKenzie.

It got serious pretty quick. Police would trace McKenzie's last known steps on the day she disappeared.

We're at the Academy of Hair Design. Mackenzie Cowl is a student here. It's 3:00. She's just finished asking one of her co- students, "Hey, do I have to sign out if I'm just leaving for 15 minutes?" Right after that, she leaves out this door right here.

This one right here. Right here. She comes up these stairs and she's recorded on these cameras here. These security cameras on the side of this wall. That's correct. This video taken by those security cameras captured the last images of McKenzie alive. When she got to her car, she sent a text to her boyfriend. She said, "Hey." Hey. That was the way she greeted you.

Yeah. Then McKenzie Cowell disappeared. Like she drives off the face of the earth.

That's a good way to put it. I'd lay at wake at night and where are you? Everyone, even strangers, was searching for that answer.

We just started canvasing any neighborhood. After several days, that was our strength and our hope.

Then 4 days into it, Reed Cowell got a call from the FBI. But she told me she was so very very sorry to have to tell me this over the phone, but that they had found a body.

I didn't know what to say to him. What do you say? In a bend of the mighty Columbia River called Crescent Bar, McKenzie Cowell lay in the shallow water. And right here in this location, uh, about 15 ft out from here, is where Mackenzie's body was located.

Douglas County's Chief Deputy, Robin Wag, was struck by the brutality of the murder. A

combination of strangulation, a blunt force trauma to the head, a deep laceration into the neck.

And horribly, McKenzie's killer had attempted to saw off her arm. You could see a knife still stuck into the the tissue. Uh,

a knife was still in her body, still stuck in into her shoulder, into the tissue.

What did you guys do at that moment? Just stood there and held each other. The police went to work and after meeting with McKenzie's boyfriend, they decided to give him a lie detector test. Do you know who killed McKenzie? And they kept saying that I failed that question.

Do you know who killed McKenzie? No, I didn't. Detectives kept Waqen in their sights, but the investigation took a dramatic turn when a surprise witness came forward. Liz Reed swore she knew who killed McKenzie Cowl and that the video of McKenzie leaving the beauty school was not the last recorded image of her alive. Liz swears she saw the murder itself unfold in a chilling videotape.

I saw it with my own eyes. Recorded by the killers. The Colombia River held a silent secret about how McKenzie Cowl, so full of life, had come to rest along the bank at Crescent Bar, some 48 m from home. It was a violent violent way to meet your end and then the attempted dismemberment afterwards. That was probably the most shocking thing.

Detective Cruz and Chief Wag sense the challenge that lay ahead. No stone would go unturned, no matter how long it took.

But first, a town took time to grieve. We are here today because somebody stole her life.

McKenzie's stunned classmates gathered in the local arena. They did something that only God is allowed to do.

The Appalletes danced for their friend and Reverend Sandy Brown tried to somehow make sense of it all.

But we are here today also because no one can steal our memories of her. Mackenzie, we love you.

McKenzie's mother, Wendy Cowell, went on local news and begged for answers. It's important to my family and I for you to bring that person forward.

As the hunt for a murderer began, an unprecedented statewide task force of top investigators from around the region joined forces.

I think this was probably the biggest investigation the Washi Valley has ever seen.

First to be questioned were those who loved McKenzie most. We interviewed Wendy, Reed, family members.

I would never describe Reed or the mother Wendy as a person of interest in in this case, but we certainly did look at them.

But it's got to be somebody that she knew and trusted. I knew that for a fact. I really think I was like the number one suspect. McKenzie's boyfriend, who had failed that one question on a lie detector test, came directly under the police spotlight.

So then he asked me like three times if I was a gangster. Then I was like, "No."

And soon police concluded Waqen with an airtight alibi had lost as much as anyone.

Yeah, I loved her a lot. But that was not the case with this man, Joey Fiser, with whom McKenzie had her problems.

Joe Fischer was the boyfriend of Wendy Kell, McKenzie's mother. Is this potentially the guy?

We know that they have this relationship that sometimes involved arguments. She told her mom, "It's either him or me."

That was the day before she went missing that they had had a huge fight. They had had a huge

the day before. Yes. Because the next day after this volatile confrontation, she disappears.

She's gone. He remained uh very high interest with the for the task force. In the end, we could find no physical linkage.

There was no evidence to tie Joey Fiser to McKenzie's murder, and he was completely exonerated by police. The investigation into the murder of McKenzie Cowell was stalled. Two months would pass and then from the shadowy side of Wan that an unexpected witness emerged. A walking contradiction named Liz Reed.

I am in college full-time. I have a straight A GPA. If the cops were here, they'd say, "Not bad for a drugdeing liar."

I'm sure they would say that. When McKenzie Cowell was doing everything to build an honest life, Liz Reed was doing anything to stay high on Oxycontton.

I was selling drugs. I was writing bad prescriptions, doctor shopping to get access to Oxycontton.

Correct. Liz was also working with the police. You were an informant, correct? The information Liz Reed gave police sent the investigation of McKenzie Cowell's murder into overdrive.

She began providing us information about two individuals in this area. She named names Sam Quavvis and Emmanuel SOS nicknamed Buddha, streetwise convicted criminals, drug dealers, people Liz Reed hung out with.

And she tells a very compelling story that Sam Quavvis and Emanuel SOS abduct and kill McKenzie Cal on a bluff near Crescent Bar. Liz Reed told police that McKenzie died because of a horrible case of mistaken identity. That Quavvis and Buddha murdered McKenzie because they wrongly thought she was in the drug world too and a police informant.

We choked that [ __ ] to shut her up. And that's what he said. At that moment, Sam Quavvis had basically told you he had murdered McKenzie Cal.

Yes. He said they had to choke her two times because they choked her once. They thought she was dead.

It was compelling and that's why we invested so much time and so much resources cuz we were excited.

Liz Reed claims she provided more details to the cops, including a description of the knife allegedly used during the attack. So essentially, you had described the murder weapon prior to it being made public by anyone.

Yes. And come spring, as the orchards came to life again, the task force thought they'd found the killers.

That was the belief of a number of task force members at the time based on what Miss Reed was telling us.

Liz Reed swears she was actually shown a snuff film of McKenzie Cowell's death. You say the killers told you and they showed you. They showed you a video.

Yes. To have to watch somebody be tortured like they did to her and kill her and laugh about it, it never goes away. But as cops investigated Liz's disturbing story, a totally new tip came in about yet another suspect. someone McKenzie saw every day, a classmate at her beauty school.

I think he was fascinated with serial killers. He certainly was uh fascinated with death.

He's a dangerous man. The investigation into the murder of McKenzie Cowell had dragged on for 7 months.

We later found out that that information was not true. Police task force investigators had come to distrust their star informant, Liz Reed.

I'm sensing that she's not being truthful. And what of that gruesome murder video? Cops spent months looking for it.

We found nothing. We found nothing that was a video of this murder. Under pressure, Liz then threw the entire investigation upside down. She retracted her story of seeing a snuff film of Quavvis and Buddha murdering McKenzie.

You completely changed your story. I did. Liz says she felt threatened by police

that they were going to charge me with murder. You were frightened. You were terrified?

I was terrified. I'm like, my god, you're going to get taken over there and charged with something to do with killing this girl.

But cops say Liz was never a suspect, just a desperate informant with a madeup story.

Can Liz Reed be trusted? No, I think we've proven that. Investigators were frustrated. Months passed. I think you have faith that they'll find them. They will eventually. It may take a while.

Spring slowly ripened into summer when police got that intriguing new lead. He's walking northbound in the alley.

Northbound toward Yakim Street. You know, we didn't even know Chris Wilson. Christopher Wilson was a classmate of McKenzie's at the Academy of Hair Design.

There she is walking right across the parking lot. Police speculate Chris and McKenzie had decided to meet. That the brutal killing occurred only minutes after McKenzie left their beauty school after her classmate Chris came out that same back door.

We show them leaving 72 seconds apart. You know, we're less than three blocks from there. Three short blocks to his apartment from here.

Just who is Chris Wilson? That question would end up on the front page. artist, musician, had done some artwork and photography that might strike some as dark.

CBS News consultant Jefferson Robbins is an investigative reporter for the local paper, the Wanachi World. He'd come to know everything about Chris Wilson.

He has a tattoo of Hannibal Lectar on his arm. Hannibal Lectar being in the Silence of the Lambs, the serial killer. Correct.

He didn't fit into the Wachi norm. If he would have been in a big city in Seattle, New York or Portland, he would have been a non-event.

Kathleen Zorns, Chris's mother, contends her son isn't dark or evil. He's just different.

What's a Hannibal Electric tattoo? It's not a an insight into his soul. I don't believe so. No.

I mean, Chris isn't so bizarre. It's just that it's such a normal little town where everyone looks just the same. Amelia Savage is Chris's best friend. She agrees he's guilty of being an eccentric, artsy kid in a small town.

He's not a perfect person, but he's a good person. So, it was seemingly out of the blue that friends and family were told Chris wasn't just different, he was potentially dangerous. Was he fascinated with with the dead, with serial killers?

No. You laugh. It's it's it's ridiculous. And compounding their disbelief was the source of the letter to investigators suggesting Chris Wilson might be a killer. Theo Keys is yet another troubled police informant. a man who served jail time, had been a friend of Chris Wilson, and had a reported history of mental illness.

He wrote the letter while he was in jail for exposing himself to a barista. In that jail house letter, Theo wrote that Chris Wilson had an interest in dead bodies and serial killers.

We don't pick people that provide information to us. We take information as it comes in. Theo Keys, we treat it exactly the same as Liz Reed. Investigators came to see Chris Wilson as a deeply troubled misfit whose obsessive fascination with death, they claimed, led him to work in a funeral home.

There are thousands of people working in funeral homes across the country. That's a profession.

But it wouldn't be Chris's tattoo or work in a funeral parlor that made him the prime suspect in McKenzie's murder. It would be forensic evidence discovered by investigators along the muddy river bank at Crescent Bar. What led us to Chris Wilson was DNA evidence. His YSTR DNA was on a piece of duct tape that also had Mackenzie's blood that was by Mackenzie's body. It wasn't that he was different. It was his DNA.

Chris had given police a swab of his DNA on August 11th. Although not totally conclusive, the crime lab determined the DNA on the duct tape could belong to Chris Wilson. That's when Chris got the grilling of a lifetime.

Chris, have you been to Crescent Bar? No, I haven't been to Crescent Bar. Well, you know, your DNA was. And at that point, he goes ahead and says, I don't see how that could be, and I want a lawyer. I tell him, Chris, you're under arrest for the murder of Mackenzie Kell. No emotion. Absolute flat light. No reaction at all.

Zero. Eight months after McKenzie Cowell's car was found abandoned. Chris Wilson appeared in court. And there he is standing at the table in front of the judge and I just went, "That's him? No, that can't be. How could that guy have killed McKenzie?" crime.

Chris Wilson was charged with the murder of McKenzie Cowell. Charge here, sir, is murder in the second degree. How do you blame not?

And when you made eye contact with him, Chris Wilson does not make eye contact with anyone.

Kathleen, you are passionate in your belief in Chris's innocence. Correct. That is correct. In fact, Kathleen says that at the time police believe McKenzie was being murdered, Chris was with her picking up a plate of cupcakes.

He was perfectly normal, fine, happy. He was the Chris as you would have seen on any other day.

Any other day. any other day. All the promise, all the grace that defined 17-year-old McKenzie Cowell's life had been stolen. Yet, her spirit still inspired a community.

Mackenzie, we love you. She was full of life. She was just going a mile a minute and and taking life full blast. A task force.

We collected swab samples of a town. No one can steal our memories of furry. A father kept McKenzie's memory alive.

I think of all the things that we did down here, swimming and running and sometimes just sitting. But now was the time for justice and hopefully answers to unbearable questions.

I would like to talk to this guy. You know, why'd you take McKenzie? Chris Wilson declaring his innocence was headed to trial. Is this a winnable case in your opinion?

It's a very winnable case because investigators say the DNA on that duct tape was just the start of the case. This is uh what we determined was the residence for Chris Wilson.

Let's head inside. Okay. Chief Wag's task force combed over every inch of it. When they started spraying the luminol, they found what turned out to be a fairly substantial stain that they were sure was blood, and it was right in this area right in here.

The cops cut the stained carpet. Then a small bloody patch was tested for DNA. It came back exclusively as Mackenzie Cal's blood and it was a substantial stain.

So, Chief, what do you believe happened in this apartment? Uh, this is where Mackenzie Cal was murdered by Chris Wilson.

Then there was this pretty plain a controversial video of Chris Wilson. Video of me just get away. Is it clean?

Taken by his friend Tessa Skylamon. In the video shot as Chris moved out of apartment 28, the two friends seem concerned that it's neat and clean so Chris could get his security deposit back. Chris would later explain the carpet was damaged during a party.

Does it look clean? Clean for for what happening? Clean considering. Yeah, it's clean considering. But police allege Wilson was checking for blood.

She zooms right on the carpet where that blood is. The police task force is now certain that McKenzie Cowell's blood was here, soaked deep into the carpet in apartment 28, where Chris Wilson lived at the time of the murder. The question that now defines this case is how did her blood get here? We have a whole list of things that make this look very suspicious.

Washington state's own John Henry Brown, hired by Chris's mother, is among the most high-powered lawyers anywhere. His clients have ranged from Robert Bales, the American soldier who plead guilty to mass murder in Afghanistan to serial killer Ted Bundy to the barefoot bandit Colton Harris Moore. Now add Chris Wilson. Chris is clearly kind of the classic underdog and that always is attractive to us.

Together with co-consel Emma Scandlin, he is crafting a strategy that it's not Chris Wilson who is guilty. It's law enforcement of unspeakable corruption.

I'm saying to avoid professional embarrassment, they did whatever it took, including alleged these two lawyers somehow planting McKenzie's blood in Chris's apartment. This is Wachi. They do things like that.

John Henry Brown's attitude about Wan that goes way back. Allegations about sexual abuse of children.

It was the mid90s. Dozens of people were charged with child sexual abuse. Most were convicted wrongfully, it turned out, until a young John Henry Brown succeeded in having some of the cases dropped or overturned.

It was completely false, made up. uh what's become known as the Wachi witch hunt.

You don't like that when your investigators are accused of things that seem to be baseless.

Gary Rezen was the prosecutor then going up against John Henry Brown in the child sex abuse scandal and he is the prosecutor now against Chris Wilson.

Mr. Brown uh likes cases that are high visibility. He likes publicity in his cases.

What bothers law enforcement most isn't Brown's dramatic flare. There's no evidence that the blood was planted. The blood was left there by McKenzie Cal when Chris Wilson murdered her.

Remember, McKenzie's jugular vein had been cut. And Brown argues there should have been blood discovered all over Chris's apartment. How do you explain that?

He was interested and infatuated with the serial killer Dexter. The serious Dexter. Dexter is the hit Showtime series where the killer often brings his victim into a room draped in plastic to keep the crime scene clean. You

know, he very well could had plastic down on the floor. We just don't know. But why was McKenzie in Chris's apartment? Police believe they'd become friends.

No way. Swears Chris's mother. They weren't friends on Facebook, on MySpace. In your opinion, is there a campaign against your son?

I believe there is a conspiracy to frame him. Yes. And I'll tell you this, that's nuts. DNA evidence led us to Chris Wilson. And the DNA evidence tied him to Mackenzie Cal.

If Chris Wilson did not murder Mackenzie Cowell, who did? Sam Quas and Emanuel Sos.

Sam Quas and Emanuel Buddha Seros. Those two smalltime drug dealers Liz Reed once swore confessed to her. Liz changed her story yet again and now told Chris Wilson's lawyers her tale about seeing that videotape of McKenzie's murder. And she was prepared to testify under oath that it was all true.

You're certain what you saw was the death of Mackenzie Cow? Yes. On video? Yes. Liz Reed was now slated to be the star defense lawyer's star witness. But Chris Wilson still had one big problem. McKenzie Cowell's blood is in Chris Wilson's apartment and you can't explain how it got there.

Well, yeah, it's very difficult to convince a jury that evidence has been planted, but we are going to attempt to do that. McKenzie Cowell's bedroom hasn't changed much since she last slept peacefully. Time frozen in teenage photos. Her Appallet's outfit ready for the next dance.

The life she was full of life and joy and happiness and kindness. Um, her and her dad had so much fun together. She loved her dad dearly.

But here in Wan that there were two families waiting for answers to the mysterious murder. Each with very different versions of justice for Chris Wilson.

He is anxious for trial. He wants to tell his side of the story. The famous lawyer and the longtime DA were primed. Then in a stunning development, Gary Rees made Wilson the offer of a lifetime, plead guilty to manslaughter and serve only 6 and 1/2 years in prison.

I indicated, yeah, if he'd plead to that, um, I would recommend that we do that, take that offer.

Were you in any way intimidated by the fact that Brown was on this case? Well, I I don't think so. But if Wilson was a killer, a very sweet deal now lay on the table. If I was innocent, I'd take that deal.

He said it wouldn't matter if they offered him six months, six years, six days. He is not going to plead something he did not do.

Chris Wilson turned down the DA's offer. The trial was on and Liz Reed's story now had a new twist that threatened the prosecutor's claim that McKenzie was killed in Chris Wilson's apartment. We're heading to the overlook.

Liz claims McKenzie was actually murdered on this secluded bluff and that she can prove it.

Is there any doubt in your mind that where we stand right now is where McKenzie died?

None. Liz says that Buddha Seros demanded she come here to find a ring ripped from McKenzie's hand during the killing.

It was smashed. It was bent a little, but it was a ring. This is the ring Liz says she found on the bluff. Attorney John Henry Brown says it matches the ring seen in this picture of McKenzie. If true, Brown says Chris Wilson is an innocent man.

I personally took that ring that she found. I showed it to Reed Cal. I showed it to Wendy Cal. I showed it to Mackenzie's boyfriend. None of them recognized that ring at all.

Where is Mackenzie's ring? If that's not Mackenzie's ring, you bring her ring into court. They don't have it because that is her ring.

Police concluded it wasn't McKenzie's ring and that Sam Quavvis and Emmanuel Buddha Seros had zero to do with the disappearance or death of McKenzie Cow.

I don't know Mackenzie Cow. Never met her, never seen her. This is Emmanuel Buddha Seros.

Want to throw a rock? After we tried for a year and a half to meet him, he finally surfaced.

Well, Liz Reese is a liar, so I know she she just likes to take innocent people down for for no reason.

At the time, Buddha was working an honest job and said Liz Reed's accusations damaged him badly.

I go to grocery store, they look at me like like, you know, like I'm a killer or something. They just stare at me. And Buddhist swears the cops got it right. There was never any video of McKenzie being murdered.

No, I don't have nothing to do with Mackenzie Cow's murder. It was Chris Wilson alone who would be tried for murder.

It's too late to take a plea. That's correct. Chris Wilson, are you there? Yes.

I spoke with Chris Wilson about the extraordinary moments that were about to unfold in a Wanachi courtroom. What was your relationship with Mackenzie Cow?

There was absolutely no relationship at all. You never had coffee with her? Never took her out on a date?

Nothing. And we've never had a conversation ever. Chris, did you kill McKenzie Cow?

No, I did not kill Mackenzie Cow. But a jury would decide that. And the members of that jury were now being selected. That's when all hell broke loose. Hey Reed, when we got the jury questionnaires back, I believe it was 80 to 85% of them said, uh, no, he's absolutely guilty.

There is no way in hell he will get a fair trial here. It was the 11th hour and 59 minutes. Suddenly, Chris Wilson was getting cold feet. The veteran DA and the star defense lawyer once again talked plea bargain.

So, is this a done deal? No, because they have to talk to the family. Reed Cowell and Sandy Francis, who had lived every day for McKenzie, made their way through a courthouse in chaos.

So, uh, what's going on? Plea bargain. But it also includes a written statement that I did this, I kidnapped her, and I murdered her. So it's it's

please try. In Judge John Bridg's packed courtroom, a community gathered. You may be seated. Thank you.

Chris Wilson accepted a sentence far longer than the first deal, 14 years in prison in exchange for agreeing to these words.

Mr. Wilson, it reads, "This is my statement. I also did recklessly cause the death of McKenzie Cal by strangulation and by stabbing her with a knife. Uh, Mr. Wilson, is that your statement?

Yes. And are are those the things that you did? Yes. You have any question? But Wilson would tell 48 hours. He pauses at this moment in the courtroom.

Are those the things that you did? Yes. Because the deal was based on a lie and that he took it only to avoid a longer sentence.

Did you almost say no? Absolutely. Do you believe you were framed? Framed by law enforcement? Yes.

Am I happy that Chris Wilson's jail for 14 years? Absolutely. Do I wish it was 40? Absolutely.

But just why did the DA offer a deal? I had no evidence to prove Mr. Wilson was in there with Miss Cal when that blood was deposited. The judicial dance was over.

Our job is to keep our community safe and we know that we are sending the killer to prison today.

The anguish and questions were not. In open court, Chris just pled guilty on three counts. Do you believe him?

No, I'm his mom. I do not believe him. Then two proud women who had lost what they valued most shared the humanity they had left.

Sorry. I'm sorry. Jefferson Robbins told the tale on the front page. Reed and Sandy headed home past the gentle orchards as the Columbia River rolled on whispering the name McKenzie. I have a really nice windchime out in the front yard. And when that windchime goes off, I think it's her talking to me. And I don't always think about her as being gone. I still think about her as though she's still around.

Less than a year after accepting the plea deal, Chris Wilson filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea.

Are those the things that you did? He contends his plea was not voluntary. Wilson claims he entered into the plea bargain without fully understanding the consequences, how much time he would ultimately serve in prison.

I hate seeing people get away with stuff and I like figuring stuff out. My name is Ian Iavello and I was the lead detective in the Sarah Harris case. Sarah Harris, she was incredibly bright.

Um, one should always pursue knowledge no matter the topic, very energetic, very fun. Did Sarah have any idea how beautiful she was? Honestly, I don't think she did.

Sarah Jane Harris. Sarah hopes to become an anesthesiologist. She was shocked that she won the Miss Maryland Petite Pageant. She had thought from a very young age that she would want to be a doctor. She wanted to help people. In 2020, Sarah needed wisdom teeth pulled.

She initially met James Ryan as a patient at his oral surgery practice. I'm James Ryan. I mean, it's not just that we say that we care, but we really do. We take pride.

Dr. James Ryan was a wellrespected oral surgeon. A lot of people knew him and thought very highly of him.

So, she gets the teeth done. She starts getting all these text messages and they're from Dr. Ryan. And he says, "By the way, I'm looking to hire someone as a surgical assistant." "Do you know anyone?" She says something like, "Well, what about me, mom?" And he offered her the job. She then became an employee and then his girlfriend and his living girlfriend.

Sarah's life appeared glamorous on the outside, but behind closed doors, I mean, that wasn't necessarily the case. I would have never ever thought that her life would end the way it did.

Montgomery County 911. My girlfriend, I think, overdose. I'm trying to resuscitate her right now.

And what is your first and last name? James Ryan. I'm doing confessions. And is she responded?

Is she breathing? She's not breathing. When the two responding officers got to the house, they saw Sarah. She's laying on the floor.

What did authorities think had happened to Sarah that day? She overdosed and we don't know if it's an accident, if it's suicide, or if it's a homicide.

The decision was made to charge him with depraved heart murder. I think most of our audience will have never heard of depraved heart murder.

I have never seen it before. You have to show an extreme indifference to human life. James Ryan provided those drugs that caused her death.

That doesn't mean he's guilty of murder. Another way of presenting this case would be he never intended to hurt her.

I knew this was not just some simple accidental overdose. This was much more. Was she uh sleeping on the couch last night or

Yeah, she would do that sometimes. It's the morning of January 26, 2022. Sarah Harris lies unresponsive on the floor of the room in disarray. Her boyfriend, Dr. James Ryan, tearfully talks with police at the scene. The conversation is recorded on a body camera as they ask him about the night before.

We're watching TV and then she said, "You should probably go to bed because you're tired and you have to work tomorrow." So, I did.

Uh-huh. What time did you go to bed? Probably about 10 or 11. Ryan has already told authorities he's a doctor and that he thinks it's an overdose. And he says it's happened before.

And I did CPR her back. This time Sarah doesn't survive. Dr. Ryan has suggested where she got at least one of her drugs of choice, a powerful anesthetic.

She used to take propal too. She used to steal that from my office. How they got into her body.

I've caught her before with um like injecting herself with things and why. She was bipolar also, so she could be really angry or could be really happy. Ryan had called Sarah's family with the awful news that morning, but her mother, Tina, just didn't believe anything he said. She immediately suspected James Ryan was responsible for Sarah's death. She arrived at the scene about 20 minutes later. Let me go. Let me do my baby. I started kicking and hitting him

and screaming at him. Here, let's What's the nail? What did he say happened? He said he went to bed and left her alone and came down and she was unresponsive in the morning. Authorities say they found wrappers from syringes, tourniquets, and saline bags next to the kitchen sink, and drug vials in Sarah's purse. Tina thinks Ryan arranged it that way. He wanted to look like it was a suicide.

Tina had long held suspicions about Dr. Ryan. He had encountered Sarah Harris more than a year earlier, not as a girlfriend, but as a patient to get her wisdom teeth out.

Dr. Ryan is somebody who's practiced for over 20 years. He has incredible credentials.

Mary Fuljaniti is a former prosecutor and defense attorney and a CBS news consultant. We asked her to use her decades of courtroom experience to help analyze this case. He's esteemed and regarded in his community as one of the best at what he does.

Tina Harris says the first time her daughter met Dr. Ryan for her teeth in the summer of 2020. The doctor was professional, but she does remember at the time feeling it was curious when his interest in Sarah seemed to change. She starts getting all these text messages. He asks her, "How are you doing?" And she says, "I'm fine." And he starts sending little emojis. What are you thinking as her mom?

I thought it was a little bizarre that he added a little happy face. And I thought, "Well, maybe he just likes using emojis." She says that's when Ryan had mentioned he was looking to hire someone as a surgical assistant.

I thought, well, you know, maybe he just thinks that she'd really be a good addition.

Dr. Ryan hardly seemed like a threat. He was divorced with three grown children and was involved with a woman with whom he already had a baby. At 47, he was more than twice Sarah's age.

He says, "No, I don't need your resume. Just come on in for a working interview." I said, "Well, I'm proud of you, honey. That's pretty incredible that he's going to teach you all this stuff.

At the beginning, Sarah seemed to love the job, but Tina says as the holidays approached, an extravagant gift re-triggered her suspicion that Dr. Ryan's interest in Sarah was more than professional. What was it?

A diamond necklace. That's quite a gift. I said, "Okay, he's after you." I said, "You got to put your foot down." Instead, in early 2021, she says Sarah announced she had agreed to go out for a meal with Ryan, who was ending his other relationship. He seemed to win over Sarah. And Tina admits in their early days as a couple, even she found him impressive. As a mother, was a part of you excited she was dating a doctor?

Well, I was excited. I was excited because he had a wonderful reputation. And she says Ryan was generous. He would lease Sarah a new car and take her and her family on trips, all expenses paid. Tina says in a way he spent time courting her too. You know, he would say, "I would love to have you as my mom. Sarah's so blessed to have you." Tina says she and Sarah always had a special bond. We were very, very close. She says Sarah was close to her three siblings, too, especially older sister Rachel. Rachel took it upon herself that she was going to be the protector. But there had been a rough period during Sarah's youth in suburban Maryland. Like many young people, she experimented with drugs and had problems moderating her mood. She suffered from anxiety. When did she first struggle with depression? I noticed depression coming about when she was about 14, 15 years old. She would start feeling down. But Tina says Sarah

still excelled in high school, craving knowledge and the skills that came with it.

Um, it's currently hanging in the Lou in Paris. She learned German, Spanish, Russian, and sign language.

Happy birthday to you. She put a lot of pressure on herself, especially with her grades.

Before long, Sarah got her social bearings. She fell into a great group of kids. They would sit out in the living room and play the guitar, play the piano, sing.

She was at a music festival in 2018 when 21-year-old Sarah caught the eye of Henry Peterson, 7 years older.

I feel like it was like stars colliding and uh meeting someone like you're supposed to meet.

They lived 7 hours apart, but he says they quickly became emotionally inseparable. We talked about everything you could think of in terms of a future marriage and children and family.

He says the distance eventually made them drift. Peterson broke it off, though he says he still imagined they would end up together.

She and I never stopped talking. The love was always there. By her mid20s, Sarah had gotten into modeling and competing in beauty pageantss. And in 2020, she'd won that Miss Marilyn petite pageant. The next year is when she started quietly seeing Dr. Ryan. And by that summer, they had decided to live together.

And that's when everything goes downhill. By the end of the summer of 2021, Tina Harris says James Ryan was dominating Sarah's life. Boss, boyfriend, even letting her live rentree in his house. But instead of flourishing, Sarah seemed anxious and depressed. She saw a psychiatrist who gave her that bipolar diagnosis.

Her complexion starts to change. She starts to lose weight. On a family trip to Key West that September, Tina says Sarah had been asleep when a drunk Dr. Ryan revealed something unsettling. He had first noticed Sarah in the park when she was just 14.

I used to see Sarah walking the neighborhood and playing at the park with her friends. And he says, "Then I found out she worked in the toy store, so I would take my kids there so I could see her. And I remember when she dressed up as Elsa from Frozen, and she looked just like Elsa." And then he said, "Yeah." And then I found out she worked at one of these restaurants, and so I would go in there for dinner so I could get her as my server.

It sounds like Dr. Ryan was obsessed with Sarah. He was he was very much so. By their next trip to Florida a month later, she says Sarah was acting strangely. She wore a bulky long sleeve sweatshirt despite the heat. And it seemed like she and Ryan were always fighting. And she goes, "I hate him. I don't want to be here. I want to go home."

And when they returned to Maryland, Tina saw the full horrifying picture of what Sarah's life had become. She says she called Sarah on October 28th 2021. Phone rang, rang, rang. She finally picked up. She could barely talk. Her words were extremely slurred. So I said, "Sarah, what's going on? What's wrong with you?" She goes, "Oh, I'm just really tired, Mom."

You knew something was wrong. Yeah. Well, I knew she was slurring. Tina says she and Rachel left for Sarah's house minutes later

and we walked into hell. What did you see? Well, Sarah answers the door. She smells. It looks like she hadn't bathed in a week or more. She looked horrible.

She'd weighed 120 when she'd had oral surgery with Ryan, Tina says, but Sarah was skin and bones now. And Tina says there was more. the IV bags, needles laying all over the floor, syringes, tourniquets, bloody footprints, bloody paper towels, and there were drugs, bottles and vials everywhere. Rachel gathered them up and photographed them.

I never looked at the drugs, and I wish I had. I do think some people watching would think, "How did you not look at what the drugs were?"

Of course, I just wanted to get her out. She says Sarah had offered an innocent, if unconvincing, explanation.

She goes, "I've just been dehydrated. Mom, he's just hydrating me." I said, "I'm turning him in." And Sarah starts crying. "Mom, you can't do that. Please don't do that." She's begging me. I grabbed her arms and I pulled her sleeves up and she had needle marks from here to here, all over her arms, bruises. I became hysterical. Against her better judgment, Tina agreed to hold off on calling authorities. But she says she insisted Sarah move back home. Just days later, Tina says Ryan convinced Sarah to come back to him.

In the following weeks, Tina says Sarah seemed to be getting better. She started cooking, eating, even going to church. But on December 3rd, 2021, Tina says her daughter answered the phone slurring again. Rachel Harris jumped into action. Rachel said, "I'm going to go and check on her." When Rachel got there, it was worse than the first time. Poking around the ground floor, Rachel once again pulled out her camera, finding drug bottles and vials, as well as a saline bag, an IV pole, IV needles, and bloody footprints on a kitchen mat.

She was so distraught she left without talking to her sister. A few days later, Tina confronted Dr. James Ryan. She was in no mood for another explanation. And I just reach across and smack the living crap out of him.

You hit him? Yeah. Oh, I hit him. And I said, "What are you doing?" "Are you trying to kill my daughter?"

Tina says Ryan still insisted he'd only been hydrating her. And you still believed it?

I believed he was giving her something. I didn't know what it was. I did not look at the vase. All I could see was my daughter and what kind of trouble she was in. But the next day, she says Ryan admitted he'd been doing more than hydrating her. He'd been giving Sarah drugs, though, only to keep her from getting them someplace else.

So, I told him, I said, "Look, you can break it off with my daughter, or I'm calling the police." And he said, "Well, I'll break it off with her." But days turned into weeks, and Dr. Ryan never did. After months of tension, Tina says she couldn't keep arguing with her daughter anymore. What was I going to do? Lock her up?

You probably wanted to. I threatened it. And she said, "If you do that, Mom, when I get out, you'll never hear from me again." And that scared me to death. Within weeks, there was a new tragedy for the Harris family. Sarah's brother, Christopher, just 38, died after a heart attack in Montana. I had to sign the papers to take him off life support which um no mother should have to do. His death was devastating to the whole family. Sarah posted this tribute message to her brother. Never goodbye. I'll see you soon, big bro.

And only 18 days after Christopher's death, at about 8:30 a.m. on January 26, 2022, Tina says she and Rachel were together when Rachel got James Ryan's call. Rachel started screaming. She's holding the phone. And James has it on FaceTime and he's got the camera pointed at my baby. I had Sarah on the ground saying, "She's gone. She's gone." At the time of her death, Sarah Harris weighed just 83 lb. Authorities would list her manner of death as undetermined. Dr. Ryan was not arrested. They seemed to accept his story that Sarah, struggling with mental health issues, had overdosed, but there would be help from a most unlikely investigator.

Rachel started trying to get into Sarah's iCloud. I just hope that you're happy that I'm with someone who truly truly loves me.

3 months before she died, Sarah left a voicemail for her ex-boyfriend Henry Peterson. I've never trusted anybody as much as I've trusted the man that I'm with right now professionally emotionally. You never let me in that way.

They'd stayed in touch after breaking up. So, when she didn't answer her phone after January of 2022, Peterson says he had a strange feeling and decided to go online. I googled her name and uh uh there's an obituary. Yeah.

He says when Tina gave him details, he joined her in the belief that James Ryan, the man Sarah said she had trusted more than anybody else, was responsible for her death.

But first responders didn't think so. They didn't shut it down as a crime scene. Police seized some drug vials, but left the house unguarded. Tina says that's because they believed what Dr. Ryan had told them about where she'd gotten the drugs and how she'd taken them.

It was an overdose. But she says she knew there was more to it than that, though she didn't know how to prove it. Turns out there was someone very close to her who did. Rachel told me she would find the evidence.

Rachel Harris decided to examine Sarah's laptop to see if it might contain clues authorities hadn't seen. She didn't know the password, but she knew her sister well. It took her about a couple of days to figure out Sarah's password. Combing through Sarah's computer and iCloud, Rachel hit per, a trove of text between her sister and James Ryan. The messages were full of references to drugs, including a tranquilizer named Dasipam, and two fast acting surgical anesthetics, the type Rachel had seen in the home Dr. Ryan and Sarah shared, propall ketamine, which is sometimes also used for depression.

Rachel created a binder adding the photos she'd taken there. Rachel compiled 200 pages of evidence. The medical examiner would release Sarah's autopsy report, which showed those same three drugs in Sarah's system. Research suggests they can all be habit forming and they can suppress breathing. Taking them in combination can be lethal. All the while Rachel's building a case. Yes. Yes. In February 2022, Rachel gave her binder to Montgomery County police. It eventually landed on the desk of Detective Ian Iicavello, an expert in pharmaceutical investigations. After more than 33 years as a cop, Ikelo was nearing retirement. He decided to come in alone on a Sunday.

It was my birthday and nothing was going on. You don't get parties when you're this age. I'm like, I'm just going to go in the office and look through this binder and just see

what I Cabello saw in Rachel's binder suggested cops at the scene had been wrong about Sarah's death. He says reading the text between Sarah and James Ryan was like watching a murder in slow motion.

You could see Sarah die. Sarah is suffering within the first month of their relationship.

She had anxiety. She was having trouble sleeping. Ryan offers a quick fix. I can give you an injection. The anxiety will be completely gone in 6 seconds. He writes, "It will work. Let's try it." He had already made the decision. Illoo says the text suggests that over the months Sarah developed a drug habit and a habit of asking her boyfriend, the doctor, to feed it. In October 2021, do we have ketamine here? In November, we need syringes. I feel like in December, I just really need sleep. She writes, "Can you bring propall?"

She's actively asking for drugs. At no point does he say no. Illoo says the text suggests Dr. Ryan often brought Sarah the dangerous drugs and that he actually administered at least one about a month before her death. It was December 20th, 2021. If you wake up, I just went to change after I gave you ketamine just now. He writes

he's injecting her while she's asleep. No monitoring, no anything. An IVL points to this exchange from the day before Sarah died. Is it possible to bring home ketamine when you come? She asks. Yes, I will bring some home. I love you, baby. Ryan replies. The texts tell a story.

They do. So do Rachel's photos from Sarah's house, says I Cabello. Though his colleagues lacking experience in pharmaceutical investigations might not have understood that

they had no idea what they were really looking at. He says patrol cops and paramedics often deal with overdoses of street drugs like heroin and fentanyl, but the deadly drugs in Sarah Harris's house were masquerading as something else.

There's a difference between drugs and medication. Illoo says to the untrained eye, the drugs at Sarah's look like medication. The paraphernalia around the house might have been confusing, too.

Usually what we see is burnt spoons, tin foil, some hypodermic needles, maybe a shoelace or some other string. That kind of drug paraphernalia. But to I Cavllo, the syringes and the saline, the professional tourniquets and the plastic wrappers at Sarah's made it resemble an operating room.

That's what a lot of it looked like. Whatever questions responding authorities may have had. He says Dr. Ryan offered answers.

And you've got James saying she did all of this without any other information. Okay. Well, we're just kind of going to go with what he says. He's a doctor.

He's a doctor. But I Cavllo says after reading through the family's binder, any credibility Dr. Ryan may have had that day vanished. And on March 22nd, 2022, nearly 2 months after Sarah's death,

James Ryan was arrested for the murder of Sarah Harris. But prosecutors would have to make the case to a jury.

Sometimes it's hard to convince them. Maybe especially so in this case because James Ryan's defense is suggesting he was only trying to save Sarah's life and that she had other ideas. I knew the case was solid.

Detective Ian Iavello was sure Dr. James Ryan was responsible for Sarah Harris's death and he had no problem convincing prosecutors on Montgomery County's overdose task force. Jennifer Harrison,

it's his fault. James Dietrich. He was the one who was providing those drugs. And Kimberly Sisle, he knew how dangerous these drugs were.

Ryan was a doctor after all. But as certain as prosecutors were that he knew he was risking Sarah's life. They had no conclusive evidence he intended to kill her.

We never suggested that. You can accept that James Ryan loved Sarah Harris, but it does not excuse all the other actions that he took that led to Sarah's Sarah's death.

So, they charge Ryan with a subcategory of secondderee murder, unfamiliar to many people. It's known as depraved heart murder. Prosecutors say the charge doesn't require proving the killer actually wanted anyone dead, only that they knew their actions would likely kill someone and didn't care. We have to prove that he did it with reckless disregard for the value of her life. Dietrich gave us an example.

If I take a gun and just randomly shoot it into a crowd, I may not necessarily want or care that anybody dies, but that is such a grossly reckless act that someone's likely to die. Prosecutors also charge Ryan with a slightly lesser charge, involuntary manslaughter, plus two counts of drug distribution and one count of possession with intent to distribute.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Dr. James Bry. Opening statements begin on August 16th, 2023. There are no cameras in court, but there is an audio recording. But behind closed doors, he was conducting a deadly medical experiment on his 25year-old patient turned employee turned living girlfriend.

The prosecution portrays Ryan as a controlling older man who got his glamorous young girlfriend hooked on drugs. He was stealing dangerous sedation drugs from his business and administering them to his girlfriend Sarah Harris.

Prosecutors say the proof of Ryan's guilt is largely in those text messages. Ryan offering to get rid of Sarah's anxiety in 6 seconds, telling her he gave her ketamine while she was sleeping. And on the night before her body was found, apparently agreeing to bring ketamine home to her.

Can you tell us about I don't know where to start. I was the first to testify. She was my baby.

Tina Harris is emotional as she relives Sarah's downward spiral just months before dying. I asked to see her arms and she said, "No, mama." But I grabbed her arms and I pulled up the sleeves and her little arms were covered in needle marks and bruises.

And the medical examiner tells the jury about the dangerous drug cocktail that brought her life to a tragic end. When people use all three together, those just cause profound strong sedation.

The drugs can be so dangerous, in fact, the prosecution tells jurors that doctors who use these drugs have equipment and protocols in place to revive patients if needed.

Even though Dr. Ryan would follow all of those safety protocols in his own office, he would never follow those at home.

She was chemically dependent. She was chemically dependent on him. Prosecutors also call social worker Janice Miller, who says that kind of power imbalance is a hallmark of abusive relationships.

The drugs were the way that he controlled her and really ensured that she wouldn't leave the relationship.

He's created an addict. Dr. Ryan and his attorneys did not agree to be interviewed by 48 Hours. But at trial, they argue Sarah Harris may have played an important role in her own demise, suggesting that after wrestling with mental illness, she was now losing her battle with anxiety, depression, and drugs.

Their focus on Sarah Harris is obviously her mental illness. The defense suggests Sarah may have begun stealing the drugs herself. They want the jury to know about her Facebook post about seeing her deceased brother soon, but the judge won't allow it. But they are allowed to tell jurors about a text Sarah sent Ryan months before her death.

She said, "I've lost my will to live." I've lost my will to live. Do you think there's any chance Sarah was suicidal? Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

Where's the indication of a suicide on the scene? There is none. Detective Illoo says the drug bottles found in Sarah's purse were too far from her body for her to have given them to herself.

These drugs are fast acting. She's going to be out in seconds. How? She didn't put all the medication in her purse, then went and laid down. Not possible. she wouldn't have cleaned up. Somebody else had to have done it.

But according to CBS News consultant Mary Fuljaniti, the defense argues that detectives mishandled the scene, that there's no way to know exactly what happened, including who administered the fatal dose.

They didn't test to see if his DNA or fingerprints were on those syringes. Dr. Ryan chooses not to testify. The defense argues he was a loving partner who was just trying to help Sarah.

This is a case about caring for somebody and and possibly loving them to death.

His lawyers call a friend who saw Sarah using drugs before she began dating Ryan and a relative who saw them as a happy couple. In closings, prosecutors remind the jury that to convict Ryan of depraved heart murder. It doesn't matter whether or not he actually put the drugs in Sarah's body or even whether or not he wanted her to die.

The act of giving her the drugs is him handing her a loaded gun. But would the jury agree? I try to believe the best in people. And

for as long as Kyle Stevens can remember, his friend Dr. James Ryan has done right by people.

He was pretty straightlaced, cleancut guy. When he talked about Sarah, how did he sound?

In the beginning, he seemed enthusiastic and excited. But Steven says at a certain point, Ryan did reach out with a concern.

He had asked about how to best be helpful and supportive to someone in that place of depression and possibly addiction.

Did it make you wonder if he was actually asking about Sarah? Yeah, but I didn't press. So Steven says he had no idea what was really going on between the two. Then he discovered his friend was arrested and headed to trial. When you heard the verdict, what did you think?

I was taken back. After a nearly twoe trial, it takes jurors less than 3 hours to reach their decision. We

up to count one murder in second degree. Guilty. On August 25th, 2023, they find James Ryan guilty of the secondderee depraved heart murder of Sarah Harris.

Release. Yeah. Relief. They also convict Ryan on the manslaughter and drug charges.

My heart just felt satisfied. Sarah's voice was heard through this. Tina and Rachel speak at a press conference after the verdict.

She was this beautiful beauty queen and she wasted away at the hands of Dr. James Ryan.

And again at sentencing months later. He is a predator. He's a wolf and she's floating. Please. But James Ryan's lawyers had submitted supportive letters from his friends and a legal filing which detailed that James Ryan had his own struggles with drugs and mental health. Ryan addresses the court and insists he didn't administer the lethal dose, but takes responsibility for not preventing Sarah's access to the drugs that killed her.

The words do not exist to convey and express the level of remorse I feel. Though the guidelines suggest a sentence of 15 to 25 years for this case of depraved heart murder, the judge has something else in mind.

It is the sentence of this court that you be committed to the Maryland Division of Corrections for a period of 40 years.

With more time for the other counts, it's a total of 45 years in prison. A 45ear sentence puts James Ryan in a category with some violent murderers. You know, 45 years for James Ryan is basically life. Patients rely on doctors and their expertise and their advice. And I think she's sending a very loud message to the medical community. And state's attorney John McCarthy wants to send a message to lawmakers. The depraved heart murder charge may have worked in this trial, but it's a difficult crime to prove in other overdose cases.

We need tougher laws. As early as 2015, McCarthy began pushing to streamline Maryland law so state prosecutors can more easily convict dealers and distributors who supply the drugs that lead to overdose deaths. But it hasn't been easy.

We're not at a place in Maryland right now that the legislature seems very interested in creating new crimes and new penalties. Ian Iavello, who read Murder Between the lines of this case and retired after the trial, says he still thinks of Sarah often.

I did everything I could um for her. So does her ex-boyfriend Henry Peterson, who looks back at their breakup with regret.

I guess I always thought she was going to be there. A regret Sarah seemed to share. He showed us a letter she wrote him years earlier when their relationship ended.

"You made me feel alive. Now that you're gone, I feel so many pieces and parts have died with you."

As if to preserve his connection to Sarah, Peterson still practices a concerto he played at her grave. where today a mother who faced great loss with even greater courage struggles to face the future without Sarah and her brother so close in life and death that she actually buried their ashes in the same casket. I hear Sarah telling me, "Mama, it's okay." What do you want your daughter's legacy to be? I want people to remember my Sarah as a light, a brilliant young woman who cared about others and loved life, loved it.

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Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Murders Defined | 48 Hours Full Episodes"?

Derek Moyes (Guest), Scott Warner (Guest), Anthony Garcia, Todd Cooper (Guest), Dr. Roger Brumach (Guest), Dr. Shondaanda Butra (Guest), Tina Harris (Guest), James Ryan.

What is "Murders Defined | 48 Hours Full Episodes" about?

In a shocking and brutal series of murders in the quiet neighborhood of Dundee, Omaha, both an 11-year-old boy and an elderly housekeeper were killed, leaving the community reeling and detectives puzzled by the lack of motive or robbery. As investigators uncover further violence with the murders of a respected doctor and his wife, the case highlights the disturbing reality of violent crime in…

What is mentioned in this 48 Hours episode?

16 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Sarah Harris, Dr. Anthony Garcia, Kraton Medical Center, Dundee, Dr. Roger Brumach, Tommy Hunter. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Murders Defined | 48 Hours Full Episodes"?

The episode runs 2 h 5 min; the transcript is about 16,978 words in 465 timestamped sections.

More from 48 Hours

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated February 8, 2026.